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New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi greets the gathering upon his arrival at the party headquarters during an event after the declaration of results for the Haryana and J&K Assembly elections, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
A day after the Haryana Assembly election results, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power, the political battleground shifted to Maharashtra, which is scheduled for polls in November, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that his party will work to get a bigger mandate in the western state.
The Shiv Sena (UBT), which is keen that its leader Uddhav Thackeray is announced as the chief ministerial face of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, led the way in attributing ally Congress’ Haryana defeat to its failure to take its INDIA bloc partners on board. Other INDIA bloc parties also criticised the Congress for its failure to accommodate them in Haryana.
The PM virtually launched various development projects of more than Rs 7,600 crore in Maharashtra. He accused the Congress of attempting to divide Hindus on caste lines while none of its leaders ever spoke about the many castes among Muslims. He termed the Congress an irresponsible party and a factory to “spread hatred”.
Modi said the Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and farmers of Haryana understood the Congress propaganda and backed BJP. He said after independence, Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress to be disbanded as he understood that it would become a factory to spread hatred.
A day after the results, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party was analysing the “unexpected” results in Haryana and will apprise the Election Commission (EC) of complaints received from various constituencies of the state.
However, the EC, in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, dubbed the “Haryana results unacceptable” statement of senior Congress leaders “unheard of in the rich democratic heritage” of the country and far from a legitimate part of free speech.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra said the party will study its dismal performance in the Assembly polls in the Jammu region. The Congress won only one of the 29 seats it contested in the region.
Several of the INDIA bloc allies of the Congress accused it of being overconfident in Haryana. “Wherever the Congress is weak, it takes help from regional parties, but where it thinks it is strong, the Congress assigns no importance to them,” Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut told reporters. He also appealed to the MVA allies to declare a chief ministerial face for the upcoming contest in Maharashtra. He argued that the allies won in Jammu and Kashmir as National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah was the face of the opposition.
NC Vice President Omar Abdullah said the Congress will have to introspect deep to find reasons for its defeat in Haryana. On Article 370, he said, it would be “foolish” to expect the BJP-led Centre to restore it.
On the Haryana defeat, CPI General Secretary D Raja said the Congress needs to introspect and take along all INDIA bloc partners in the upcoming polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress also pointed at the Congress’ inability to take its allies along.
In a statement, the politburo of the CPI (M) said the Congress needs to introspect. It claimed that the BJP won in Haryana due to “micro-caste mobilisation and insidious communal propaganda”.
A day after declaration of Assembly poll results, the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced candidates for six of the 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats where bypolls are due later this year.
In other developments, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini met the PM and other senior BJP leaders in the national capital. The BJP had indicated during the elections that Saini, who replaced Manohar Lal Khattar in March and hails from the OBC, will be its choice for the top post if it wins. With the party set to form its government, three Independent MLAs — Congress rebel Rajesh Joon, BJP rebel Devendra Kadian, and Savitri Jindal — announced their support to it. Jindal’s son, industrialist Naveen Jindal, is the BJP MP from Kurukshetra.
At an event, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the result of the Haryana Assembly elections in favour of the BJP has “dispelled” the myth that the Modi 3.0 government is weaker than in the previous two terms. “And since you’re today asking me this question about weaker (government), in spite of coming back for the third time, the results, which were declared yesterday for a provincial election in Haryana… have dispelled that myth and, therefore, I don’t see the Opposition behaving (in a manner) less than what a constructive opposition should behave like,” she said.
First Published: Oct 09 2024 | 9:23 PM IST
